Artificial Reality
by Renji Akai
Summary: When the boundries of video games and real life are broken, this is what could happen.[note: basically a parody of the video game industry, the games they produce, and the typical gamer stereotypes.]
1. intro

**important: **the following story contains many parodies of actual people, places, and things. so if anything in this story seems similar to something in real life, it probably means i did that on purpose.

**also important: **i realize that everything has a copyright on it, but because of the overwhelming amount of copyrighted things in this story, i'll just say (for now) that if you can guess what the thing in the story related to in real life, know that it is copyrighted by some company which i will give credit to after the story is officially complete.

(jeez, let's just hope i don't get sued for this.)

and now onto the story!

_intro_

_Ugh, _I thought to myself, _I can't believe this is happening. Where the hell are they?!_

Without warning, I heard gunshots and a few explosions.

_Damn, _I kept thinking, _Someone please show up! _  
My only communication with my team had been destroyed. I stared at the broken headset in disbelief. I found myself hiding in a small corner of the area, a dark gloomy alleyway. Suddenly, I glint of light caught my eye, and to my surprise, it was just what I needed at the time.

I grabbed the shotgun and ran into the light.  
"Hey, idiots!" I yelled out loud, "Here's to ya!"

I fired 10 shots as quickly as I could, stopping the troops in their path. Then, it began to get a little too windy.  
I looked up, and to my surprise, the Banshee was flying high in the sunset.

Noticing my team, I signaled to them to pick me up. The Banshee slowly landed, but to our horror, it proved to be a terrible mistake.

Our poor ship exploded without warning, and I turned to see an angry team glaring at me. I had no choice, but to surrender.

Unfortunately, while I rose my arms up to give up, they shot at me. Not once.  
Not twice.  
Not even three times.

They killed me with a headshot and continued shooting my bloodstained body until they were satisfied.  
The blood continued rushing down my sweat stained body, oozing and leaving a giant pond of red on the ground.  
The rest of my comrades had suffered a better fate, I suppose, dying instantly in an explosion than having to suffer this mockery.

My only thoughts now were getting revenge, not only for myself, but for my fallen allies.  
Actually, to tell you the truth, I wasn't too fond of _Evolutionary Combat _in the first place.  
I set down my controller and walked away from the dreaded Macrosoft contraption.

_I need a life, _I told myself, looking back and sighing.


	2. Chapter 1: And So It Begins

**And So It Begins!**

Hoping to reunite with my fallen comrades, I went outside and glanced at the sunset. _It's a beautiful day in Withering Acres,_ I thought to myself.

There were two neighboring rival towns in the area, Withering Acres and Flourish Meadows. Withering Acres was a quiet, peaceful, suburban area, with friendly people and a calm environment. Flourish Meadows was the exaggerated version of Withering Acres. Everyone there was wealthy, and wasn't afraid to show it. Even though they weren't, Flourish Meadows had an attitude that they were "slightly better" than their neighbors. Even the law enforcement showed some bias towards citizens of Withering Acres. It made me sick sometimes, that those people actually had the nerve to think of themselves as superior. This, in turn led to many problems between the two areas, not to mention certain "gang warfare".

Withering Acres High School kids had a large hatred towards the students of Flourish Meadows High School. It was only a few years ago that Flourish Meadows was found to have a giant burning "W" in the town center, a retaliation tactic used after Flourish Meadows had nearly egged and vandalized almost every major building in Withering Acres. Let's just say that when the mayors of both towns attempted to merge the two into a new city to be known as "Withering Meadows", there was such a large revolt that you would think a World War was about to happen.

The strange part was that I had friends in both Withering Acres and Flourish Meadows. Most adults in Flourish Meadows would look down upon it, but we could care less. There's no point in labeling yourself and sticking to just one group of friends.

I crossed the connecting bridge above "The Brook" to get into Flourish Meadows. There's a lot of history concerning that brook, which in my opinion, should be considered more of a river. But anyways, I entered the hostile Flourish Meadows and headed for my friend Kasshu's house. I didn't have much planned. Hopefully, it would just be crashing at his place for awhile and maybe score a free meal.

"Yo," Kasshu greeted me as I stepped inside. "How bout that battle earlier, eh?"

"Pfft," I muttered, "You guys ditched me and almost left me to die.

"Sorry, bro," Kasshu replied, "you know how those Banshees can be at times."

"Whatever," I said. "You headin' anywhere?"  
"Let's head over to the mall," Kasshu said as he put on his signature trench coat.

"For what?" I asked.

"Dude, _Fighter's Destiny_ debut at the Stadium!" Kasshu nearly spat towards me.

I almost collapsed. I was in love with the _Fighter's _series to an extent that it almost became an addiction. Don't take me wrong or anything, I did enjoy fighting games a whole lot, but I do have a life. We both grabbed a cup of instant Ramen and headed towards the bus stop. Nothing pumps you up for an intense battle like some warm noodles. Trust us, we'd know.


	3. Chapter 2: Fighter's Destiny

**Fighter's Destiny  
**

Stadium Arcadium was located in the Flourish Meadows Mall. There was a great history with it, and it wasn't just a place for geeky kids or adults with no lives to hang out. Over the years, Stadium Arcadium had become a place for celebrities to make famous appearances. The most recent were the Red Hots, one of Kasshu's favorite bands of all time.

My jaw nearly hit the ground when we saw the crowd around the _Fighter's Destiny _machine. It was almost as packed as the when the Red Hots were at the Stadium. Kasshu and I looked towards the middle of the ruckus, and saw a gothic type guy mouthing off.

"C'mon," he kept saying to the crowd, "I've been at this machine for almost five hours now. Isn't there someone who can put me out of my misery and just kill me already?"

"That guy's a monster," a kid next to me said. "He seriously has been here for five hours, defeating everyone that challenges him."

"Wait," I said, "what about the CPU? There's no way he can win against it for five hours!"

"Oh, I know," the kid replied, "That guy did, though. Everyone here's stumped."

Kasshu and I looked at each other in disbelief. According to _GNI Magazine_, Fighter's Destiny was the most challenging game in the entire _Fighter's _series. The only way you could stay undefeated was to seriously do nothing but play the game for nearly a week. Then, it hit me.

"Hey, you." I barely realized that I was talking. "I'll take you on."

"Ryu," Kasshu whispered to me, "are you crazy? You've never even played _Fighter's Destiny _before, and this guy has already mastered it!"

"Relax, Kasshu," I told him, "I know how this guy's been going for so long."

I stepped up towards the machine and inserted the amount of cash needed. The goth guy looked at me and grinned.

"Are you going to put me out of my misery, kid?" he asked. His posture was a little sloppy, and I swear that he could've been trashed. There were sweat stains all around his _Velvet Roses_ T-Shirt, and tiny drops running down the metal chains of his pants. The rings around his eyes were dark and ominous. Judging by the look of him, he hadn't eaten or left the machine. His loss, since I knew exactly what I needed to do to get this guy outta here.

He chose to fight as _Venga_, a mysterious masked fighter. There were some new characters in the game, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I went with my regular character, the street fighting _Jen_. Don't laugh that I pick the girl characters. Everyone underestimates them, but Jen had fire abilities and could summon the dragon king to defeat her enemies. Oh no, now I sound like a total geek now.

The match was a single sudden death. You needed to completely destroy your opponent to win.

_"Do you need me to go easy on you, little girl?" Venga asked._

_"Cut the crap," I replied. "Let's get this over with."_

_Venga laughed a bit, and then dashed towards me. I leaped up, hoping to avoid him, but he released a few fireballs from behind me.  
Realizing the error of my ways, I quickly blocked them and sent a few back in his direction.  
He caught onto my plan, though, and somehow got behind me. I tried to turn around, but I was too late.  
His giant arms collided with the back of my neck and I fell to the ground, with a few bruises beginning to develop on my arms.  
I stood up immediately and rushed towards the masked fiend. His grotesque mask had an eerie presence about it, but I aimed for it anyway.  
My fist and his face met and the mask begin to crack.  
Without hesitation, I quickly went for a side kick to knock him down.  
Surprisingly, the creature fell over and then I began my retaliation.  
Leaping up into the air, I quickly summoned the Dragon King, Dragoon, and sent him forward.  
What happened afterwards seemed indescribable to the many watching.  
I yelled for the Dragon Inferno, which struck Venga multiple times.  
His body became engulfed into the flames and slowly burned up._

The gothic kid looked up at me. "Thank you," he said in an ominous tone. He collapsed as if he was truly killed in real life. Kasshu ran up to me in disbelief.

"No way!" he exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"  
"Simple," I answered, "all fighting games have the same button combination for their killer move."

At least I knew that purchasing _Fighter's Destiny _for myself wouldn't be that great. It would make a great game to play with a bunch of friends, but sadly, like most of my collection of great fighting games, it would just "get too old". Kasshu and I decided check out the rest of the mall (and Kasshu decided to check out some other girls at the mall as well) until closing time. I sure could've used another cup of noodles.


	4. Chapter 3: Football Extreme!

**Football Extreme!**

(note: if you happen to be a football fan and realize which teams are playing, and you get slightly offended that it's these two teams and not a better one, then i apologize up front.)**  
**

My blaring alarm clock went off and I stared at the time.  
"5:55 am," I groaned, "What was I thinking?"

Suddenly, my phone rang, which startled me even more. Hesitating a bit, I picked it up.

"Hello?" I barely choked up.

"Ryu!" It was my friend Jin. I could tell by his happy go lucky tone voice.

"It's 6 am, Jin," I mumbled, "what do you want?"

"I hope you're not forgetting what today is," Jin said.

"Tell your cat happy birthday then," I muttered.

"Not that, stupid," Jin snapped, "Game time."

I suddenly awoke with a start. How I could even forget that was a mystery. Today was the big day Jin got Football Extreme XX. My friends and I were all pumped for it. Jin and Kasshu were arguing for nearly a month on their favorite teams, the Grizzlies and the Loaders. Kasshu was raised a hardcore Grizzlies fan, while Jin likewise was raised a passionate Loaders fan. In actual life, the rivalry between the Grizzlies and the Loaders was almost as great as the one between Withering Acres and Flourish Meadows.

A few hours later, I got to Jin's house, and as I entered, saw many familiar faces, Kasshu among them. The Multipad had already been set up, and I began to mentally get prepared. I looked around and the rest of my team. This was going to be one heck of a game.

Kasshu was the center, with me playing quarterback of the Grizzlies. Jin would be quarterback of the Loaders. Jin and I took our spots towards the center of the field.

"Heads or tails?" the referee asked me.

"Tails," I replied. I knew that it would be a tough fight, since Jin had the home field advantage. Not only was the crowd cheering for Jin's side, but we'd have to deal with the rowdy devoted Loaders fans.

Kasshu and I watched the coin flip into the air, and stared it down until it hit the grass.

"It is tails!" the referee called. I chose to receive the ball, despite the many boos echoing from the stadium.

Jin's kicker appeared to be a stick. At least, that's what he looked like from afar, but it didn't matter, since he shut me up right away after the kick. I could've sworn that the guy had possessed the football, because it nearly flew past our end zone and out of bounds. Luckily for the Loaders, it barely landed in bounds. Our receiver snatched it quickly and downed it.

1'st and 10. During our huddle, Kasshu told me to go all "Lex Sickboi" style. I chuckled a bit. Lex Sickboi wasn't exactly the greatest quarterback the Grizzles had, but he was alright. Ask any Grizzlies fan their opinion on Lex Sickboi, and right away, you'll hear them say "Horton!" (That would be the Grizzlies' most honored younger quarterback for all of you non-Grizzlies' fans.)

"Hut!" I cried. My team ran off in formation across the hostile field. I glanced quickly and saw three of the Loaders breaching our defenses.

_Aw, crap_, I thought to myself, _I'm gonna get sack-_

WHAM. I fell to the ground and heard the cheers of thousands of Loaders fans. That was probably the greatest sack of all time. Not one, but three defensive linemen rushed toward me and tackled me with a powerful force.

2'nd and 17. We had lost 7 yards, and running it would not have been the best option. I gathered my team together, and an angry Kasshu came towards me.

"What the hell was that?!" he demanded.

"Don't worry about it," I said, "We're running the option two."

The team looked at me in disbelief. Option two was the most desperate play in the history of football. It involved the entire Grizzlies running into the end zone, leaving the quarterback helpless. If the Loaders attempted another blitz, I would be finished. Kasshu looked at me the most in disbelief.

"And who's the lucky guy that gets the wonderful pass?" he asked sarcastically.

We all looked at him.

"No," he said, "No freakin' way."

"I got some advice for ya," I told him. "Run."

We lined up and prepared ourselves mentally.

"Option!" I called. "Hut!"

They dashed off in a hurry. In about 20 seconds, more than half of my team was in the end zone. I looked again ahead of me and saw the same Loaders running after me. I silently said, "Hail Maria", and chucked the ball. The Loaders all glued their eyes to it. Of all the players on the field, Kasshu had his eyes _locked_ onto the ball. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of being stuck in the air, the ball began to reach the ground. We focused on Kasshu. It was getting closer to his hands. Three inches away, Kasshu was determined on grabbing the ball with his life. However, out of nowhere, Jin jumped in front and caught it for an interception. Frustrated and out of anger, Kasshu speared Jin from behind. Safety!

The most anticlimactic opening play turned out to be one of the most shocking. The Grizzlies and I grinned after hearing the loud boos erupting from Loaders Stadium. The score was now 3-0, with 13 minutes remaining on the clock.

We eventually won the game with an amazing 59-0 blowout. It was a great day for Grizzlies fans everywhere, and happened to be the first blowout Jin had ever experienced as quarterback of the Loaders.


	5. Chapter 4: Guitar Nero

**Guitar Nero  
**

_"Ryu!" cried Kasshu._

_"What is it?" I replied._

_"Concert starts in 3 minutes! You better hurry your butt cheeks to the stage!" Kasshu bellowed._

_I stood up from my chair and looked into the mirror. My long, black hair appeared to be drenched in sweat, and the performance had yet to begin. I began to pace the room slowly, almost wondering if it was even worth putting on a show tonight._

"Hey Kass," I started.

"Something wrong?" the bassist replied.

"I was just wondering something," I continued, "Is it worth performing even when you screw up? I mean, what if the crowd realizes that we've messed up a few notes and decides to boo us?"

"Ryu," Kasshu began comforting me, "listen to me. It's not about whether or not the crowd can hear our mistakes, and it's definitely not about whether or not we hear our mistakes."

"Eh..?" I wondered.

"What I'm trying to say is," the philosophical bassist continued, "no performance is what you may call 'perfect'. There is no doubt that we'll screw up someway tonight."

"Thanks," I muttered and began to leave the room.

"No, don't take it like that," Kasshu quickly spat out, "hear me out."

"You got a minute."

"Look," Kasshu tried again, "it's not about the mistakes. It's about entertainment. It's how the crowd sees us, like their overall impression of us."

Kasshu's rant continued until he made a very important point:

"As long as the crowd's happy, we've done our job," he finished. "If those people are all pumped up, excited, wild, and loud, then they're satisfied with what we've offered them."  
"You're right, Kass," I said as I smiled at our bassist. "Let's go out there and give 'em all we got."

"Now _that's _the guitarist I know." Kasshu grinned.

I walked to the corner of the room and stared at my weapon of choice. A brand new El Thipson Brand Guitar. The Thipson Guitar was almost comparable to a work of art. In the light, it shined so bright, you would have to wear sunglasses to take a good glance at it. If you were lucky to even see it during performances, you'd notice that it was a cherry red finish, with a raven black neck and silver strings. The frets were a metallic shade of gray, and combined with the rest of the guitar, it was a beauty. At night, my axe was almost a completely different persona. It was still cherry red, but the night performances unleashed the true inner being of my guitar. Little red skeletons would become visible on the raven black neck at night, adding more effect to our shows. I became so interested in those skeletons that I decided to push for 90 of our performances to be at night.

Eventually, it was show time. We found our drummer Dingo Radiance and backup guitarist Dirk Kilbane with a mass swarm of fangirls backstage.  
(In case you were wondering how it went, Dingo was the smart one, Dirk was the cute one, Kasshu was the shy one, and I was the powerful one.)

Soon after separating from the mobs, we approached the main stage entrance.

"This is it," Kasshu told us.

"Let's make it count." replied our drummer.

"We'll shoot 'em dead with our songs!" Dirk added.

"Whoa, Dirk," I interrupted, "Enough with the gun references. People might start to think you're going suicidal or something."

_"Ladies and gentlemen," a voice onstage bellowed, "the moment you've been waiting for. Let's hear it for Auburn Four!"_

The crowd went nuts as we walked onto the stage. I think I must've counted at least fifteen sets of underwear thrown at us, and to be brutally honest, a good mix of both male and female.

"And now…" Kasshu began in a deep voice, "ARE…YOU…..READY?!"

Once again, the crowd's reaction was the same, minus the underwear this time.

"Then…" Kasshu continued, "LLLLLLLLLLET'S GET READY TO ROCK IT!!!"

The roar from the audience would have been deafening had we not played any songs. We started off with what we liked to call an "amp warmer", which would get the crowd into a rocking mood. We decided to go with a crowd favorite, "Female" which was made popular by the band FoxnFather. Everyone loved it. Teenagers were jumping up and down in their seats, metalheads were swinging their long hair everyone, and everyone was having a great time. Later on, we changed things up a bit by playing some slow songs, one in particular was one of Dirk's favorites, "Circular Shaped Container". Finally, to end the night, Kasshu decided to pull off an all time favorite.

"Everyone," Kasshu announced, "we've had a blast playing for you guys tonight." (The crowd let out a giant roar of approval.)

"So," he continued, "we're gonna leave you guys here with a treat!"

(The crowd began to get even more deafening.)

"Get ready," I began, "for an all time favorite of mine and all of you…"

(By this moment, the crowd was ready to explode into cheering, despite the fact that we hadn't even announced the song yet.)  
"XXW!" my band and I bellowed together.

Not even after we had finished saying "W" that the crowd just broke into cheers. XXW was probably my all time favorite song to perform. Made famous by the band Dash, "XXW" was a unique fast paced song which featured a solo for every instrument, meaning all our band members had their moment to shine throughout the song.

We started up XXW with the infamous Guitar, Bass, and Drum simultaneous intro riff. The crowd was on its feet, jumping along to the beat. Finally, along came my solo. My fingers were moving so fast, I was seeing colors blur before my eyes. Green, red, yellow, blue, and orange all moved so very fast before my eyes. Suddenly, I arrived at a spot where we held a note to allow the drummer to get a solo in.

"Ryu!" Kasshu signaled to me, "Use the Jammy Bar!"

"Right!" I replied.

In case you didn't know, the Jammy Bar is used to distort notes on a guitar, and is particularly the most effective when holding a long note. By moving the bar up and down, a guitarist is able to tweak the sound of the note and vary it up a bit. With my Jammy Bar skills, most of the audience was melting in their seats.

Nearing the end of the drum solo and our holds, Kasshu signaled to me again.

"This time use Star Force!" he cried.

Tilting my guitar slightly up, I began to play the fastest riff of the song. The crowd went nuts. People were either screaming their heads off to cheer me on, screaming their heads off for the sake of it, or just staring in disbelief at my fingers moving up and down the frets in a matter of nanoseconds. Either way, when we had finished the song, the crowd let us know we were still wanted onstage.

"Ladies and gentlemen," a bellowing voice said, "how would you like to see Auburn Four perform an encore?"

I think I might have temporarily lost my hearing after that. The noise was so piercing, I think Kasshu's guitar chipped. (Well, serves him right for choosing a Flying W brand guitar anyway. But don't let him know I said that.)

With the total rating of our performance hanging in the fate of our audience, my band looked at me and we all nodded in approval. One final song to boost our overall appearance. It was time to bring out ThreeWorld, the longest song in the history of rock. Spanning ten minutes long, ThreeWorld consisted of a calm, slow section which later transforms into a fast paced beat. The crowd clapped along to the song the entire time, while Kasshu and I sang our hearts out while playing.

Finally, it was over. Kasshu, Dingo, Dirk, and I all collapsed onto Kasshu's couch. I threw my Thipson on Kasshu's coffee table.

"Hey, hey!" exclaimed Kasshu, "careful with the guitar!"

"Relax, Kass," I snorted, "It's just plastic."


	6. Epilogue

Artificial Intelligence: Epilogue

"_One final moment," _I whispered to myself.

_One last chance. One defining moment. One more shot._

Dodging the gunfire and falling debris, I took shelter behind a boulder. I panted heavily; running that many miles in under an hour was definitely not helpful. Explosions and screams echoed behind me. Soldiers' blood stained corpses fell to the earth, and broken weapons clinked after them. I crouched, clutching onto my only weapon, a laser pistol.

I wiped the condensation from my forehead.

_Footsteps._

Glancing around quickly, I forced myself into a tiny ball, but it was too late.

_Gunshots. _

My cold, dying carcass hit the ground with a dull thud. I took one last glance to my left side. I was just as cold as the dirt below me. Looking up towards the sky, I slowly closed my eyes and let the light guide me…

I stared at the static on my screen. Realizing that I had been wasting my time, I set the controller down and laid my head on the couch.


End file.
